Declining scores examined

Wednesday

Oct 10, 2012 at 11:24 AMOct 10, 2012 at 11:26 AM

Luke Smucker

Students are being stretched too thin and as a result, test scores suffer, according to a presentation made to the Pontiac Township High School Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday night.Lisa Meyer, Guidance Department chair at PTHS, discussed with the board her department’s findings on results from the ACT scores as well as what common trends they found among students from last year’s graduating class.Her main point for the evening was that she believes students are being stretched too thin, partly due to athletic requirements and other extra activities where the students are required to do things outside of school. “Whether that’s a couple nights per week with band or students going to this or that athletic practice, we are trying to find ways, but our kids are just stretched really thin. I think unfortunately, what takes a back seat is the academics. These are the same kids that we are trying to pull — because they are great kids — in 100 different directions.”She broke down the reasons for why the high school is seeing lower testing scores for students taking the ACT. The first is an increase to commitments outside of the school day. “Whether that be actual school activities, work commitments or other various things,” said Meyer. “It kind of leads into our next point, which is that students are starting to take less rigorous course work because they are stretched so thin with their day because of activities and work commitments.”From her perspective, Meyer said their office sees a need for students to receive more instructional time, which they don’t get because of field trips and activities that require students to be out of the classroom.The final reason, she said, is that students are the only group who are not held accountable because of their test scores. Approximately 70 percent of PTHS students last year did not go on to a four-year college. Meyer said this means that the ACT score doesn’t really have any adverse effect on many of their students.“For 70 percent of our students, it’s a test and a score, but it won’t alter any of their decisions when they leave us,” said Meyer. “The students within that 30 percent who are going to a four-year school after high school, they have a vested interest in that score because it is something that those four-year institutions are looking at.”The guidance department has already been working on bringing test scores up. In fact, for the past couple of years, Meyer said her department is using the Explore test for incoming freshmen to determine where their placements are going to be, if they need extra assistance in English or math. They also offer ACT online practice for free to all juniors and have in-house reviews of each of the core areas where students can come in during their study hall time. “If they don’t have a study hall their junior year, we rotate a class if they promise not to miss those review sessions,” explained Meyer. “We have brought back departmental testing days as well. We just had one last Friday where departments were asked to offer help with testing strategies and help look at information. Departments are also having data days where they look at data and focus on what trends mean, so that we can make decisions to focus on where students need to be more educated.”One of the big changes this year, she noted, is a change in date for the standardized testing. Up to this year, schoolwide testing day was held in March or April. However this year, that day is being changed to November for a couple of reasons. One is that the state will pay for the students to take the Explore, Plan or ACT tests, however the state decided this year that students have to take it by a specific date in the fall, or they were not going to be funded. “So, we changed our day and we are also excited because we think we will get data back sooner,” said Meyer. “We can have that information to make decisions while they are still in the classes where they took the test. The one thing that we do have to keep in mind is that we may not see the growth that we would have because they are taking the test sooner, so we have to keep that in mind when we are looking at data for next year.”One of the waning trends among students within the last few years, she said, is the idea of going from high school directly into a four-year college. Meyer reported results show that only 30 percent of their students who graduated last year went from high school into a four-year college. Meyer said this is because in the past 12 years, community colleges have really stepped up their game. “They aren’t seen as a place where people ‘just settle’ anymore,” said Meyer. “Because of the economy and the work they have put into working with the four-year schools, it’s more economical for many students to start at Heartland or a community college and a lot of students are using the two-year college as a steppingstone.”Another trend among students is a slight rise in those going straight into the workforce. Meyer said Pontiac’s numbers are probably a little higher than what some other schools might see, but for last year’s graduating class in particular, some of them had jobs in the community, so they planned on working and making some money and then possibly going to a trade school.Superintendent Jon Kilgore also discussed RevTrak, a new online payment system that the high school is expanding. Kilgore said within what seemed like hours of it being activated, the high school already had lunch accounts being registered.We are planning on dabbling with different things as we go on,” said Kilgore. “For example, the science department has their fundraiser and we are looking at adding spirit-wear, so it’s growing, but the main business right now is the lunch accounts and we are averaging about $1,000 per week with that. I think that’s only going to continue growing and we are providing a very positive thing for families here at our school.”